Cold War icon Daniel Ortega trades in Marx for God, warms to U.S.

By TRACI CARL

The Associated Press

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Daniel Ortega returns to Nicaragua's presidency a shadow of the fiery revolutionary who in Cold War times vowed an endless fight against a U.S. government determined to overthrow him.

Balding, weakened by heart trouble and often appearing almost docile, he now preaches reconciliation and stability, and promises to maintain close ties with the United States and the veterans of the Contra army it trained and armed against him.

He has traded his wartime military fatigues for a white shirt and jeans. His guide, he says, is God, not Karl Marx.

The United States and his rivals worry the Sandinista revolutionary in him will resurface, as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro welcome him into a club of leftist leaders fighting American dominance in the region.

But Ortega, who was president from 1985 to 1990, the height of the Contra insurgency, says he has traded war for peace, love and consensus.

His victory speech late Wednesday was tinged with some of his old fire. Raising his arms in victory, he led thousands in a rendition of an old revolutionary song: "The people united will never be divided."

He promoted socialist ideals such as free education and medical care, lambasted U.S. Republicans for the war in Iraq and thanked other leftist Latin American leaders for their support. But most of his speech was dedicated to praising democracy and reaching out to opponents.

"Don't let one criticism slip from your lips against those who didn't vote for us," he warned his supporters. "We have to be humble."

Ortega, who turned 61 Saturday and takes office Jan. 10, has been careful not to sound triumphalist. Even though his strong lead over Harvard-educated banker Eduardo Montealegre was clear soon after last Sunday's election, he waited two full days for Montealegre to concede defeat before declaring victory.

His speeches have focused on reassuring skeptics that he plans no radical changes and will embrace free trade, job creation and close U.S. ties.

Perhaps the biggest sign that Ortega has changed is his vice president, Jaime Morales.

Shortly after the Sandinistas ousted dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, Morales' wife came home to find Ortega's wife, Rosario Murillo, occupying her house and wearing the family's clothes and jewelry. Morales spent years fighting for restitution.

Recently, he got it: Ortega returned works of art, a desk that was a family heirloom, and other things.

Shortly after, Morales agreed to run as his vice president, saying he preferred "the strange to the unknown."

"We agreed on peace 18 years ago, and it's time to heal that wound," Morales told The Associated Press. "Maybe together we can get people to forgive and forget and move on."

He said the next five years will be nothing like Ortega's first regime, when state economic control was so heavy that people lined up for rationed food and hungry farmers could be jailed for butchering their own cows without permission.

"Daniel Ortega knows he made a lot of mistakes," Morales said. "He's honestly regretful."

Ortega's mistakes will haunt his new administration.

Leaders of the country's Miskito Indians have accused him of genocide for forcing thousands to relocate during the U.S.-backed Contra civil war. He has apologized for moving them, but denies genocide.

On Thursday, the Permanent Commission on Human Rights, an independent Nicaraguan body, said it would push the genocide case against Ortega throughout his administration.

Ortega's stepdaughter, Zoilamerica Narvaez, says he molested her for years, starting when she was 13, and often speaks against him publicly. Ortega and his wife both deny it, alleging Narvaez is mentally unstable.

Remembering the Sandinista closure of opposition media, some worry Ortega will not keep his promise to respect media rights. During his campaign, he rarely spoke to news media he believed tied to the United States, and refused to take part in a campaign debate sponsored by U.S.-based CNN en Espanol.

In his third failed run for president, in 2001, when reconciliation was the watchword, he actually waved a U.S. flag on stage. Yet celebrating May Day 2005 in Cuba, he referred to Americans in a speech as "the enemies of humanity."

Maricela Ortega, a 43-year-old store saleswoman, says she believes the president-elect is a different man.

The previous Ortega "was a dictator," she said. "But from what I've seen so far, he's no longer a rebel."

His wife Murillo, who is also his campaign manager, decides whom he talks to and is always at his side. Cartoons show her manipulating Ortega like a puppet.

Dissident Sandinistas say he has become too conservative, as well as opportunistic in his alliances -- for instance by joining forces with his opponents to push legislation through Congress that effectively weakened the then president, Enrique Bolanos.

Now he will replace outgoing Bolanos in that diminished presidential role, and must work with an opposition-dominated Congress.

More than ever, Ortega will need the support of his former enemies, and they have pledged to keep him in check.

U.S. State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos says cooperation with Ortega and his government will be "based on their action in support of Nicaragua's democratic future."

"We want to have a close, respectful relationship with the United States," Vice-President Morales said. "That doesn't mean we will always agree with the U.S. But it also doesn't mean we are an enemy."